I worked on a beekeeping project in the Sudan in the mid 1980's and a major thrust was to convert beekeepers from a destructive harvest of primative log hives to a top-bar type hive. Wood was in short supply, but we observed that the Sudanese stored drinking water in clay pots and were quite good an pot making. For water storage the pots were great in that they were porous and the evaporative cooling made for a cool drink. We had some pot makers make a number of clay hive prototypes, but we never got good acceptance by the bees. We ended up adapting a common woven (reed) market basket that worked quite well as a top bar hive when suspended between two trees. Bill Lord -- WILLIAM G LORD E-Mail : wglord@franklin Internet: [log in to unmask] Phone : 9194963344